Patrick Hanlon is recognized as one leading branding practitioners in the world. He is ceo and founder of THINKTOPIA®, a global brand and strategic innovation practice for Fortune 100 clients including American Express, Levis, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kraft Foods, Johnson & Johnson, Yum! Foods, Wrigley, PayPal, Gap, the United Nations and others. His book Primal Branding: Create Zealots For Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future was published by Simon & Schuster/Free Press and is listed as one of the Top 10 books in marketing and branding. Primal Branding® is the seminal book on brands as belief systems—and in 2006 anticipated creating social communities around brands, whether products and services, personality brands, political or civic movements, or actual civic communities.
Primal Branding is mandatory reading at YouTube, the largest social engagement platform on the planet, as their recommended construct for designing and attracting online social communities.
Hanlon’s new book The Social Code: Designing Community In The Digital Age defines how to create communities of advocates who become so passionate about your success, they are willing to create it themselves.
Hanlon has been a keynote or guest speaker at IDEO, HP Innovation Series, New York University, American Marketing Association, American Advertising Federation, Syracuse University, Urban Land Institute, and elsewhere. He has also been a featured speaker in emerging geographies including China, India, and South America.
Hanlon has been featured, quoted, or interviewed in Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc., Advertising Age, National Public Radio, CNBC, FOX and frequent overseas publications. Hanlon is listed as one of the Top 50 people to follow on Twitter, Top 50 Over 50 in Marketing, and is an online contributor for Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Medium and other publications.

Face Slams: Event Marketing Takes Off

A few weeks ago, the National Football League filled the southern tip of Times Square with NFL players to sport the new NFL jersey designs. A few days later and a few blocks north, Russian models were mobbing the 45th Street island between Broadway and Seventh Avenue and using it as a fashion runway for Maybelline. Across the Atlantic, hundreds of Norwegians were gathered to watch cliff divers at a Red Bull event.

What’s happening?

Experience marketing is taking hold not just across the country, but around the world. What started as pretty girls (and boys) passing out samples of shampoo, candy bars, snacks, deodorant and other products (in Amsterdam, they handed out morning shots of Absolut Limon…oh, Amsterdam!) today includes far-flung extravaganzas at Spring Break, NASCAR, and in everyday life. As one expert says, experiential marketing has gone from the edge of the marketing media plate, to becoming the nexus.

One reason for the surge is the overwhelming proliferation of media, online and off, that makes it harder for brands to be seen and heard. “The din of noise is deafening,” says David Rich, senior vice president of strategy and planning worldwide at George P. Johnson Experience Marketing, the world’s largest event and experience marketing agency. “Brands are realizing that awareness is no longer enough—it’s about brand experiences and creating brand relationships.”

Kerry Smith is founder of Event Marketer magazine and the Event Marketing Institute. “Until eight years ago, events were measured by how many samples you delivered and how much per cost,” he says. “Traditional marketing has become less effective in breaking down people’s defense mechanisms. Face-to-face has become the best way to create chemistry, moving people and logistics focused on a one, two, or three-day period.”

“Reaching people isn’t the challenge—it’s connecting with people,” says Charlie Horsey of MKTG, a marketing services firm that specializes in event and experiential marketing for companies like Nike and Google. “Tactile engagements where people can feel, touch, taste the product—rather than simply reading about it, deepen and enhance relationships.”

Consumers have found more and more ways to sidestep marketer media bushwacking, compelling them to take to the streets. Today the growth of live event and experiential marketing is growing faster than the economy—from 3.6% in 2011 to an industry forecast of 7.8% growth in 2012, as communications technology and the social media sync with brands concentrating on events that drive sales.

“What we’re really trying to do is engage with the consumer community so deeply, that they begin to take on the task of evangelizing the brand themselves,” says George P. Johnson’s David Rich.

GPJ developed trail team events for Jeep and Toyota, creating total interactivity and, in the case of Toyota, off-road afficionados started taking on the task of finding trailways themselves and tell other enthusiasts about them. “The Trail Team is and was amazing just because of how the consumer base took ownership of it,” says Rich.

The objective is to create an experience that is so engaging and relevant that brand loyalists talk about it on social media, post photos, and assume some of the brandwork of creating a consistent presence.

The mother of all events marketers, of course, is Red Bull—who became a global pioneer in holding off-the-grid experiences for its community of enthusiasts. The brand even hosts a “Holy Shit” tab on its website, lately featuring everything from Cliff Diving Series in Grimstad, Norway, to a man and his motorbike cutting through traffic in Mexico City (not by going between cars, but by going over them).

And it’s not just about events. The concept is elastic: it’s about creating tactile engagements where people can feel, touch, taste, smell the product face to face rather than simply reading about or watching it. It’s about deepening and enhancing relationships. “We go back to human instincts,” says Charlie Horsey of MKTG. “Imagine a relationship with a significant other that wasn’t 100%—it’s not a 3D relationship. True, valuable, authentic relationships are multi-sensory.”

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I am thrilled to see new brands and new companies realizing the value of face to face marketing and relationship building. I’m too young to have experienced most of the Burmashave road signs, but older folks remember those types of mini-memories and were loyal to the brands behind them. Not to use this platform as shameless self-promotion, but creating mini-memories for our clients and their audiences is what my company has been doing since it’s inception…..it’s a play I took from my years with Disney. I’m glad it’s finally getting some press and becoming “main stream.” I look forward to helping new clients create live experiences and incorporate new technologies to promote their brands, build relationships, and product loyalty. The live event industry has taken a huge hit in this economy. This was a great piece. Thanks for writing it and shining the spotlight on us.

WOW! So now we call it Face Slam? Red Bull has been doing this for years. The only difference is, they didn’t call it Face Slam. I went to an nationwide box car competition in Bochum (Germany), hosted by Red Bull, in 2004 or 2005. Two years ago they organisd an air race over Swan Lake in Perth (Australia). Explain to me, what is it that sets Face Slamming apart from Event Marketing? A new packaging?

Glad to see the rush towards Digital/Mobile/Social is being tempered by brands’ desires to actually connect face to face. Like all event marketing companies, we saw that dramatic drop off in spending in 2008-2009. Much of that was due to the economy, but there was also a blind faith in everything digital to fund. We were guilty too! But I’m glad to see digital fitting in as part of a bigger desire to connect, not a stand alone tactic.

It is certainly encouraging to see big brands working on face to face interaction alongside their social media programs. As consumers get access to more options these interactions have become increasingly sophisticated – or the company uses that event to fuel its social media presence. A great example of this is TNT with their ACTION campaign for the adrenaline soaked cable channel.

Entertainment brands are definitely leading the way in social media as well as live events. Having a brand come to life and exit its comfortable space, meet and greet people and then draw them online for data collection and future engagement is invaluable.

Great post with some very cool examples noted. Integrating social media into experiential programs is also very important for audience amplification and extending the life of the event/experience with post event engagement via social media.

Thanks for the comment! Social engagements can live well beyond the life of the event. In the old days, they were rock concerts, car races, tennis matches, or golf. Today, almost anything can qualify–or be magnified.